He's the reason I can't sleep
by percico-feels
Summary: After getting injured during a quest and losing consciousness, Nico wakes up on a bed, with a sleeping Percy hugging him by the waist. Things just get worse when the said son of Poseidon wakes up as well. One-Shot.


**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO, Rick Riordan does. And I'm not getting any money by writing this fanfiction either.**

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**He's the reason I can't sleep**

_by percico-feels_

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When Chiron sent him on that mission, Nico could feel he shouldn't be going. He argued at first, tried to reason, and when none of that worked, he begged not to go. This didn't work either. Chiron said he was a vital part on that quest; that there was no other demigod who could fulfill his place if he stayed at Camp. And when Nico suggested that Percy could easily replace him - because of all that Hero-Of-Olympus-And-Strongest-Demigod-Alive thing - Chiron just smiled at the son of Hades and said:

"But Percy is going on this quest too. You're going to help him where his abilities aren't enough. I need both of you on this one."

That was enough to distress the boy big time, although he had been capable of hiding it well. Of course he had, Nico was an expert on hiding his true feelings. But he still tried once more to get away of that quest and failed again. In the end, he had no other option than to go, which frustrated him quite a bit.

The quest Chiron sent them was to retrieve some lost sword that Nico had never heard about, that belonged to a long dead King who Nico also had never heard anything about. His part on the quest was to talk to the dead King and try to get from him the location of the damn sword. Percy's part was to lead them to the place the King's ghost now inhabited - because as it seemed, the ghost got tired of haunting the castle where he had died and moved to a sunny island on the Caribbean, to get rid of the cold weather and to spend some of his undead life on the beach, like he always wanted to.

So having no more arguments available, Nico gave up and agreed on going on that damn quest with Percy... and everything went terribly wrong.

First, thanks to Percy's great fear of flying, they were forced to make their journey my boat and Nico ended up discovering that he was not very fond of boat trips. Yeah, he had traveled on the Argo II and everything, but the ordinary ship they were in was _not_ the Argo II and their trip became three times longer than if they had used Leo's super ship. And after the first 24 hours locked on that ship, the son of Hades was feeling really sick.

Then, when they were once again on land and found the stupid King, the ghost was a real pain in the ass and Nico wasted almost an entire day trying to get the information from him. The King just helped them when Nico lost his temper and threatened to send him to the Fields of Punishment if he kept being a jerk. After that, the King was more than willing to help and told them everything he knew.

Finding the sword itself was not so difficult. They got some lucky on that point, because the sword was on the same island the King's ghost was now haunting; the weapon had sank along with a massive pirate ship and had been lost since then. It took a little more than one hour for Percy to find the sword on the remains of that ship, deep on the ocean.

And when Percy got back to the surface, smiling like an idiot and showing Nico the blade they'd been looking for, the son of Hades thought that everything was over. He would shadow-travel them away from that freaking island, give that sword to Chiron and vanish from Camp Half-Blood for at least three whole months. He would hide at the Underworld once more, until he was once again strong enough to face Percy for some time. Yeap, that's what he was planning to do.

But since when did things go according to Nico's plans? Before Percy could get out of the water, a huge Kraken appeared from nowhere and attacked the son of Poseidon. Percy fought against the beast, using the sword he had just found, while Nico tried to come up with a plan to help his friend. He couldn't do much to help Percy, once he was fighting the Kraken into the water and water was not Nico's element, but he tried to use his control over the earth move some rocks from the sea and hit the monster.

He was doing quite well, when the Kraken sensed that Nico was a threat and grabbed the boy by the ankle with one of its tentacles, dragging the son of Hades to the water as well and making him cut his chest on the way. He almost drowned. For real, it was really close and, for some seconds, Nico thought he'd die right there, but Percy managed to defeat the beast with some help from other aquatic animals and pulled Nico out of the water just when the younger one felt he was loosing consciousness.

Luckily, the pain in his chest when the salt water was touching his open wound was big enough to keep him awake.

"Oh my gods, you're bleeding" Percy said alarmed, as soon as they reached the sand "We need to get you some Ambrosia."

Nico tried to sit, but a wave of pain made him cry out and brought tears to his eyes. Nopes, it would be better to just stay quiet on the sand. No movement, no pain, that was a good idea.

"I'm fine" he groaned.

"Of course you are. And this thing dripping from your wound is tomato soup, not blood."

He wanted to make a sarcastic retort to Percy's joke, but Nico just bit his tongue and kept quiet.

When the reply didn't come, Percy sighed and sat on the sand beside Nico. Blood was flowing fast from the wound on his chest; Percy had to get him some Ambrosia as soon as possible. The son of Poseidon searched his surroundings, looking for the two backpacks they'd brought with them and found it some yards away from where they were.

"Stay here" he said, standing up and running to get their things.

"As if I could move" Nico complained weakly, moments before he finally loose his consciousness.

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When he opened his eyes again, it was dark, and Nico could barely see what was around him. The pain on his chest had lessened considerably and didn't feel that weak anymore, but his thoughts were still kind of messy.

The son of Hades could easily feel the comfort of a mattress under his body and the softness of a blanket covering him, so he knew he was on a bed, but where the fuck was he? Was he on his Cabin at Camp Half-Blood? Had Percy managed to bring him back home? Everything was still confused to him and he couldn't think very clear... and this just got worse when he felt an arm embrace him by the waist.

Nico stiffened immediately; his entire body got tense and his head snapped to the side, just to find a fast asleep Percy Jackson hugging him (and drooling over Nico's shirt).

_'Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods, this is not happening, this is not happening'_ Nico thought on the verge of despair.

That couldn't be happening, that had to be a pretty bad dream. Percy was not sleeping next to him, of course he wasn't, why would he?

"I'm gonna wake up" Nico whispered to himself on the darkness of the room, closing his eyes fiercely "I'm gonna wake up right now."

"Nico?"

_'Oh gods'_

The arms encircling his waist loosened and went away, as Nico felt the mattress move beneath his body. The son of Hades opened his eyes carefully and found Percy staring at him with sleep-clouded eyes.

"You're awake" he said, yawning "Good, you scared the hell out of me when you fell unconscious."

Nico blinked some times, before having the guts to say anything.

"How long have I been out?"

"Since noon" Percy replied, rubbing his eyes slightly.

His heart was beating so fast, Nico was amazed Percy couldn't hear it.

"And where are we?"

Great. That was a good idea. Keep the conversation running, that way he couldn't focus on the fact **_that he was sharing a fucking bed with Percy Jackson_**. A jolt of heat spread through his body at that single thought and almost made the boy growl.

"At some hotel I don't even know the name. Are you okay, Nico?"

"What?" his voice came out like a yelp "Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be okay. Of course I'm okay."

He wanted to slap himself. He was acting like a school girl and Nico couldn't be more ashamed.

"You look nervous" Percy said, completely confused.

_'Think fast, think fast'_

"It's just... I can't..." he stuttered, trying to come up with a plausible excuse "I can't sleep well when I'm too far from home."

_'Really? What a great excuse!'_

But Percy seemed to accept his answer, because he just looked at Nico with sympathy. A small smile adorning his lips.

"I had the same problem when I was a kid" he said simply "I think I can help you with this."

And to Nico's entire horror, Percy hugged him again and held the younger boy to him like he would do to his own girlfriend. At that moment, Nico was sure he would pass out again; there was no way his heart would stand that much emotion, like he was just experiencing. Was it him, or it was getting hot on that room?

"What a-are you do-oing, Percy?" he asked, dumfounded.

Realizing that Nico seemed tenser than before, Percy let go of him again, than turned on the bed to face his friend.

"Sorry, my mom used to hold me 'til I fall asleep" he explained sheepishly "Thought it could work with you."

Nico remained silent for long minutes, trying to stead his breathing and make his heart stop beating so freaking fast. Gods, he needed to calm down. He needed to stay calm and just sleep. But the room was awful hot and his shirt was getting damp with sweat already. Damn body!

"You're still awake" Percy said, several minutes later "And you're sweating."

"It's hot in here" he snarled "And my chest is burning with all this sweat."

He should know that wasn't a good thing to say, because a) that was gross, no one needed to know about his body fluids, and b) he should have known Percy was going to try to help him with that.

"Then take this shirt off" he said, sitting on the bed and helping Nico into a sitting position as well "Come on, I'll help you with your wound."

And as Percy helped the son of Hades taking off his shirt - entirely unaware of the reactions that simple gesture was causing to Nico's lower parts - Nico was quite sure about one thing; that was going to be the longest night of his life.

**_~FINIS_**

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**A/N: I apologize if there's any errors on this. I just finished writing and, even revising, some errors always slips. **

**Anyways, thanks for reading. Reviews are more than welcome. :)**


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